Not all transcendence is created equal: Distinguishing ontological, phenomenological, and subjective beliefs about transcendence

Abstract

ABSTRACTPsychologists have generated numerous measures designed to capture the “spiritual,” “religious,” and “transcendent” structures of human cognition, emotion, and behavior. Researchers often identify transcendence as the unifying element that brings together these constructs, but the concept itself lacks precision. Namely, they confound the distinctions between the different kinds of content that populate what is actually a diverse and dynamic set of belief systems regarding transcendence, reducing transcendence to its functional outputs. This paper outlines a more robust theoretical framework by drawing upon the resources of theology and philosophy. The aim is to describe a model that clarifies both the content and function of a variety of transcendent belief systems, which includes at least three clearly distinct but interrelated domains: ontological transcendence, which conceives of reality in terms of supernatural categories of being; phenomenological transcendence, which focuses on traversing the divide between the self and others or the self and the world; and subjective transcendence, which has in view the ever-shifting boundary that constitutes the mundane self, the crossing of which is always yet to come.